Judge Appointed by Bush After Impasse in Senate Retires

By ADAM LIPTAK

Published: December 10, 2004

Charles W. Pickering Sr., who was appointed by President Bush to a federal appeals court without Senate approval during a Congressional recess, announced his retirement on Thursday at a ceremony at the federal courthouse in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Judge Pickering, whose nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, was twice blocked by the Senate because of Democratic opposition before President Bush made the recess appointment in January, said he would not seek a new nomination to a permanent position on the court.

''President Bush can now nominate someone younger who will be able to serve longer, which I believe is in the best interest of the court,'' Judge Pickering said, according to The Associated Press.

Judge Pickering's appointment would have expired in any event when the Senate adjourned Wednesday night, under the Constitutional provision governing recess appointments. He submitted his formal resignation from the court, which hears cases from Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, shortly before the Senate adjourned.

''Extreme special-interest groups opposed my nomination primarily due to their hostility to any nominee with strong religious convictions who personally disagrees with them on abortion, marriage and references to God at public ceremonies and institutions,'' Judge Pickering wrote in a statement, issued late Wednesday. ''These far-left groups cowed Democrat leadership into opposing my nomination. In doing so, they pushed those senators out of the American mainstream, some out of their Senate seats, and the Democratic Party out of entire regions of the country.''

Judge Pickering's nomination was one of several that Democratic senators had blocked with filibusters, a tactic that Republicans condemn. Recess appointments, which are contemplated by the Constitution, are similarly unpopular with Democrats.

In his statement, Judge Pickering, 67, said the bitter fight over his nomination threatened judicial independence. ''The mean-spiritedness and lack of civility reduces the pool of nominees willing to offer themselves for service on the bench,'' he said.

The debate over Judge Pickering's nomination largely concerned his civil rights record as a Mississippi lawyer, state legislator and federal judge over several decades. Democrats portrayed him as insensitive to racial issues, citing an article he wrote on anti-miscegenation laws as a young man and a 1994 trial he presided over in which he took steps to reduce the sentence of a man convicted in a cross-burning.

In his statement, Judge Pickering thanked ''the people of Mississippi -- both black and white, both Democrat and Republican -- who supported my confirmation.''

Ralph G. Neas, the president of People for the American Way, a liberal group that opposed Judge Pickering's elevation to the appeals court, said the judge's statement was ''a graceless goodbye.''

''His partisan, ideological farewell underscores the concerns that were raised about his confirmation,'' Mr. Neas said in a statement.